Senior Systems Engineer, Cloudflare
Application Security
$66-91k
Salary in US currency, may be adjusted depending on work location + Equity program with stock grants
2 days a week in office
Web performance and security platform
Be an early applicant
Web performance and security platform
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$66-91k
Salary in US currency, may be adjusted depending on work location + Equity program with stock grants
2 days a week in office
1001+ employees
Company mission
To help build a better Internet that is bold and ambitious.
Role
Who you are
- You must have at least 5 years of professional experience working hands-on as a software developer
- We require proficiency with at least one of Go or Rust, plus exposure to devops tooling like but not limited to Kubernetes, Salt, Kafka or Systemd. Strong Linux / Unix fundamentals will be very helpful
- You must have experience working with distributed systems at scale. Experience with cyber security is preferred but not essential
- Cloudflare’s culture is busy and multifaceted, and people who succeed here are persistent, have a can-do attitude and a genuine willingness to assume good faith in others
- This last quality in particular requires them to be empathetic and emotionally intelligent, so you’re someone willing to take responsibility for the culture and environment that you create around you
What the job involves
- Application Security is responsible for Cloudflare’s fast-growing security product portfolio including WAF, Page Shield, Web Asset Management and API Shield
- Being part of Cloudflare means working at internet scale and we are uniquely positioned to tackle challenging problems related to being connected to more networks, websites and customers than any other provider worldwide
- Working at great scale by default (to an extent not offered by most other employers in big tech) means pushing boundaries well beyond what commodity solutions like Nginx and Kafka provide out of the box
- You’ll be working with custom components that have been created in an engineering-driven and pragmatic way - our code is well-tested and documented and uses modern ecosystems like Go and Rust
- This gives you confidence that you will spend your time having an impact and not firefighting!
- You’d be joining a high-profile part of the business that can really accelerate and support your career. Cloudflare has a strong track record of growing in a thoughtful way and hires carefully so we’re confident that you will enjoy working with your colleagues here!
- Design systems and write code following bleeding edge industry best practices and help others on the team do the same. Review RFCs, technical specifications and code
- Deploy and maintain live software-based services at scale (up to 100m requests / second, 1m customers). Take regular shifts as part of the team’s On Call rota
- Support and grow other Engineers through knowledge sharing
- Keep up to date with trends in detecting current and emerging security risks to web applications and provide input on how these impact Cloudflare’s products
- Work with Engineers and Product Managers outside your immediate team in communicating our roadmap and getting things done
Our take
Cloudflare is a multi-service global network that provides web security and infrastructure, DDoS mitigation services, and a content delivery network. Founded in 2009, Cloudflare has risen to become an industry giant, with over 25 million global internet properties on its network.
Cloudflare has been responsible for a number of admirable initiatives, offering free web protection to human rights groups, journalists, artists, and US election websites. This goes some way to counteracting the flak Cloudflare has received in some circles for the controversial groups and users who use its services. This chequered history, however, has not affected its over 80% market share in the content delivery network field.
This is perhaps in part because it has proven sharp at staying abreast of the rapidly morphing tech and digital space and customer demands. For example, Cloudflare is shifting to 100% renewable energy usage to create a zero-emissions internet, and in 2020 released a feature that would help users navigate data privacy regulations by selecting where their data is stored.
And impressive third-quarter 2025 results show strong momentum, with revenue rising to $562 million from $430 million a year earlier. The company also raised its full-year guidance, underscoring confidence in continued growth. As demand for secure, cloud-based infrastructure keeps growing, Cloudflare's expanding platform and improving efficiency leave it well positioned to capture further gains in a rapidly growing market.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
16% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Company benefits
- Competitive pay: We offer a competitive total rewards package, where every employee is an owner of our stock.
- Take-what-you-need vacation: We encourage employees to find a comfortable work-life balance by taking as many days off as they need while still being able to perform their jobs satisfactorily. (We really mean it!)
- Paid maternity & paternity leave: Our global parental leave policy allows up to sixteen paid weeks of bonding leave time for all qualifying new parents.
- Employee benefits: We offer a comprehensive benefits package including healthcare, life insurance, short- and long-term disability, pension plans in accordance with the market practice in our locations.
- Commuter program: We are flexible about where we work and value connecting at the office. Our commuter benefits program is in place to support team members' commute to work via public transportation without the extra cost burden.
- Wellbeing: Global offerings that provide mental health, childcare and family forming support to our employees across our offices.
Company HQ
China Basin, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Lee Holloway
(Co-Founder & Lead Engineer)Lee began their career as an Engineer at Homewarehouse for a year before working at Unspam Technologies for 4 years. They co-created Project Honey Pot in 2004 and Cloudflare in March 2009, serving as Lead Engineer of both to present.
Michelle Zatlyn
(Co-Founder, President & Co-Chair)Having worked for Investor Economics and I Love Rewards for a combined 4 years, Michelle worked at Toshiba for 3 years as a Product Manager. She then co-founded Cloudflare in 2009 as COO, and has served as President since 2020. She is also a Board Member at Atlassian.
Matthew Prince
(Co-Founder & CEO)Matthew studied for an MBA at Harvard Business School before co-founding Unspam Technologies in December 2001, and Cloudflare in 2009, where he has served as CEO ever since.
Share this job
View 163 more jobs at Cloudflare